Avalanche training camp: Day 2 roundup

My story for the mothership site will be about how awesome Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly have looked together so far in training camp. Hey, maybe they didn’t always get along so great last season, over all that stuff that happened, but they seem to have definitely put that behind them, at least professionally.

As Patrick Roy said of their dominant play in today’s scrimmage: “Wow. That was a good clinic out there.”

O’Reilly has been tremendous, winning almost every physical battle along the walls and in the corners, with no sacrifice in offensive creativity despite not being in the middle of the ice as much anymore. And Duchene has looked unstoppable up the middle. He gave top pick Nathan MacKinnon a bit of a schooling in the scrimmage in his Black team’s 5-3 victory over Mac’s Blue team.

But MacKinnon definitely showed flashes of why he was a top pick. MacKinnon seemed like he was a bit ticked at himself over his day, as this video might indicate (or maybe it was my bad questions. That might be the ticket). But he didn’t seem all that happy:

Roy had good praise for MacKinnon, though, while sort of admitting that there is plenty of room for improvement.

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Steve Downie left the scrimmage early, which of course immediately brought up worries he hurt his knee again. While Roy wouldn’t say why he left early, he said Downie is “fine” and will be back on the ice tomorrow. … First-round pick Joey Hishon missed another day with his groin injury. This training camp looks to be a washout for the talented but oft-injured center. … Erik Johnson scored two goals in Black’s victory and earned a lot of praise from Roy. … I thought Spencer Martin looked real good in goal during the scrimmage, and I know Roy really already very high on the kid. So is coach Francois Allaire.

At this time of year, I think I’d rather see a video on how O’Reilly and Duchene were clicking together over MacKinnon pouting about not playing as well as he had hoped. I mean shoot, the kid is only 18 years old-did anybody actually think he was supposed to look like Crosby in that game?

caf

I really think there was never any problem between Duchene and O’Reilly last year. It was just DP reporting things that that tool Mike Chambers made up.

Pollardinio

Yeah, Spencer Martin was a proper score that we drafted him in the third round. The kid is big (6’2”) and is super poised, flexible and as agile as a cat. His only flaw is juicy rebounds (pretty much every good young goaltender’s problem). For an 18 year old, he pretty much looks like he could be our #1 Goalie by the time he’s 21. I just can’t get over how relaxed and poised he looks at 18! The future is bright for Avalanche Goalies!

Mike Chambers

caf: How does it feel to be anonymous? I’d like to meet you and see if you want to make that accusation to my face. — Mike Chambers

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.